Broken and Burning
by LynnLautner
Summary: When Jake recieves an invitation to Bella's wedding he escapes to Canada, but with someone tagging along can he put out the flames, or will they burn brighter?


_**Paws & Art Banner Contest**_

**Title: _Broken and Burning_**

**Penname: _82c10akaLynn_**

**Banner: **http: ********/ t********inyurl (dot) ********com ********/ ********3kjulsm - - Jake/Leah pairing********

**Rating: _M_**

**Summary: _When Jake recieves an invitation to Bella's wedding he escapes to Canada, but with someone tagging along can he put out the flames, or will they burn brighter?_**

**Banner _# 1_**

**To see all the stories that are a part of this contest please visit: http: / / printingpawss . blogspot . com/**

**Broken and Burning**

Leah watched as the last vampire made its move. Crouching down, she sprung out from behind the massive boulder making her way head-on toward the vampire only to be knocked out of the way by Jake. When his body collided with hers it sent her flying back. She could hear Seth's screams and the rest of her pack yelling as Jake tried and failed to fight off the vampire. When it got his arms around Jacob and flexed, she could feel his earth shattering pain.

Leah stayed away as long as she could. She knew the pack didn't want her there and Billy was so worked up right now that she was positive that he would kick her right out of the house. So she waited silently in the woods, in human form. She knew they knew where she was sitting, alone in the woods some fifty feet from Jacobs' window, but she didn't care, at least they couldn't hear what was going on inside of her head.

While the other wolves had went home, the leech lover came to him and broke his heart one final time. Leah sat in the woods and listened to it all, crying as silently as she possibly could, wiping the tears away before they were allowed to travel down her cheeks. She knew that pain, felt it each and every single time she witnessed anything in the pack mind that had to do with Sam and Emily. Each and every time she had to hear her cousin's name slip from her own mother's mouth like the girl was a Godsend or something.

She knew what it was like to burn.

When the red truck rumbled down the road Leah fought the tingling itch under her skin, the need to phase. Someone had to be there for him even if it was the bitter old harpy sitting out in the woods, no one was there for her. So she sat and fought the phase with every whimper she heard come from the cracked window of the little red house. Finally when the last light was turned off and Jake was silent, she moved closer to the house, allowing herself to sit on the back porch. He needed to know that he was strong enough to make it through this. He was Jacob Ephraim Black, everyone would depend on him one day. He was the future of their tribe. He was her only hope.

He had croaked out at some point during the night his fathers name, but Billy hadn't heard him. When his pain-filled voice pleaded again for his father, Leah opened the back door and silently padded down the hall to his room. The door was hanging open, the smell of leech, antiseptic, and tears invaded her nostrils the closer she got. Standing in the doorway she eyed him, only covered by a tattered sheet on his all-too-tiny bed. He took one look at her and groaned as he pressed himself back into the mattress.

Leah helped him that night with any and everything he needed, insisting that Billy didn't need to be woken up, that he was an old man and that he needed his rest. It was her fault Jake was in the position he was in, after all. If only he wouldn't have played hero Leah could have had the bloodsucker. Through the pain Jake could only mutter "sure, sure."

As the days went on, Leah would sit and wait for him to need her. He never asked for her during the day when his friends or packmates were around, never even uttered a word to anyone about her helping him. At night though, he called out her name instead of Billy's not long after the lights were out. She would enter the house through the back door, sometimes the window depending on how desperate he sounded.

At first the nights went quickly for Leah because Jake was actually needing help; making his way down the hall, needing food or water, but there toward the end he would call for her she would come and then they would just sit. Jake would sit with his back pressed up against the twin-sized headboard, his fists balled, and just stare at the walls in front of him. Leah sat on a rickety desk chair and stared at his dirty clothes. She knew he was thinking about _her_.

Leah is sitting on the cliffs when she hears the soft footfalls come up behind her, the slight scuffing on the right side gives him away, and she can't help but huff out in annoyance. She can't take another moment of sitting with him watching him watch a wall, or in this case the waves crash onto the shore bellow. She really just wants to be alone. The first night she went into Jacob's room after he fell asleep for the third time she made a promise to herself. She might not have been able to save her dad, but she could damn-sure save Jacob Black. He needed saving and he of all people deserved it. He was just a kid, not much older than her little, and sometimes annoying, brother. Being with Jake though, knowing what thoughts were occurring behind his blank angry eyes staring at the flat white walls in his room, it took her right back to a place that she didn't want to be.

Sam.

Why was it that everything leads back to Sam? Could she go through that pain just to save him?

Ever so slowly she started to burn.

When his shoulder bumped into hers, Leah fought back the snarl that was trying to make its way to her lips. Jacob didn't deserve that. She looked at him, he was looking at her, searching for something, and then it happened. He took a deep breath and instead of thanking her for helping him or just being quiet so she could have just one speck of peace in her life, he started in about Bella Swan.

She could feel the heat rise from her chest as he continued on about the paleface, until she finally snapped, yelling at him to just get over her already. Jake's head jerked in her direction with such a broken expression that Leah almost gasped but then the pain slipped away and anger marred his features. He yelled at her to leave him alone from now on, stood from the cliff's edge and left.

Leah's shoulders slumped, but she wouldn't dare go after him. Maybe she wouldn't go there tonight either. She'd have to find a different way to save Jake, a way that wasn't going to drag her down in the process.

She was still sitting on the cliff's edge when a horrific howl erupted, and she knew it was him and that he was in pain. He hadn't phased yet, this was the first time, there had to be a reason.

This time she let herself burn.

She was on four paws and running before she had completely turned her back to the cliffs. In the pack mind she could hear the words play over and over again. It was a wedding invitation; the leech had sent Jacob an invitation to his wedding and even sent a note to go along with it. The pack was pissed off for Jake, feeling the pain that was burning him alive. Leah was the only one that caught the small thoughts as Jacob ran. He was leaving and had no intention of coming back.

It wasn't long before her brother caught on and brought it to the forefront of the pack mind, and then they were yelling at him to forget about her. Embry and Quil were running after him and then Sam told them all to just leave him alone, let him be. It was a shock that Leah's paws didn't dig into the dirt right then and there, much the same as Embry and Quil's did.

It was silent for a split second and then she heard his voice in her mind, just his voice. The pure joy she felt at that moment almost overlapped the pain that she could feel coming from him. Somehow she had done it, defied an Alpha order, gotten out from under Sam, and now she was catching up with Jake. She could see him bounding through the woods in front of her. He may have had a lead on her but they didn't tell her she was the fastest wolf in the pack for no reason.

When she finally did catch up to him she bumped him just so. He didn't look back, he just kept running. She wondered if he could hear her like she could hear him? She wasn't sure so she kept her thoughts to herself and ran alongside of him, waiting.

Her legs were burning.

She had asked him twice now when he was going to stop, but he didn't answer, he just kept running. Leah had no idea where they were or where they were going even, she just knew Jake was trying to get there fast.

It had been two days and they were mid-way through their second night of flat out running. They hadn't stopped to do much other than hunt, something Leah hated to do in wolf form. As they ran, an image of Bella slid across her mind, Leah didn't realize that she had made the decision to shove herself into Jake's side until it was done and they both were rolling around on the ground snarling and snapping at each other.

He was yelling at her, taking all of his anger out on her when suddenly Jake phased back to human. Kneeling on the forest floor in front of her wolf, Jake doubled over as he grabbed at the roots of his hair and sobbed. When he rolled back up his face was lit by the moon. The tear stains stabbed at her but, it was his whisper of "why" is what had her phasing back and walking toward him.

Kneeling down beside Jacob, she didn't even think about the two of them being naked, she just took him in her arms much like a mother would and held him. Held him as he clutched at her bicep and cried, his hot, tear-soaked cheek pressed against her naked breast most of the night. Held him as he tried to fight her off when he got angry again and then she held him even tighter when he allowed himself to finally fall back onto the forest floor and sleep.

She woke up that day before he did, stunned that they had stayed in the same position. She couldn't stop looking at him like this, much like the nights early on after the Newborn fight. His face was so at ease and innocent looking that it was then she realized that he was only seventeen. When she made a move to untangle herself from him he gripped her arm tighter, almost making her wince before he pleaded with her not to go. She didn't.

The weeks that followed were much the same, more running, more hurt, more anger. Eventually Jacob opened up and told her that he could hear her thoughts and feel her just as much as she could him. They both wondered the reasoning behind it, but neither of them questioned it. Eventually Leah couldn't help but wonder when they were going to go back, though. She was missing Seth more than anything.

The thought had played over and over in her mind until Jake acknowledged what she had said. Stopping by a stream he phased back and waited until she did the same. They were spending each and every night wrapped up naked in each others arms, at this point she had seen every part of him and he her.

Standing in front of Jake, Leah crossed her arms over her chest and waited. She knew where this conversation was going to go; it didn't mean she was going to be happy about it. Afterall everything always went back to Bella Swan.

When Jake wouldn't look at her, she walked around him and made him look her in the eyes and tell her just what his plan really was. His plan, plain and simple, was to never go back to La Push. There were too many memories of her there, too many places they went together, too much time she had spent immersing herself in every aspect of his life, just riding the tide until _he_ came back. La Push was tainted and he was never going back.

His face was burning; he could feel each individual fingerprint.

She had slapped him, it had stunned her enough that her overly heated hand that had just connected with the side of his face was pressed to her open mouth, and her eyes were wide as saucers. The sight would have made Jacob laugh if his face hadn't been stinging like a mother fucker. With a growl and step toward her, Leah backed away, fear in her eyes. Did she really think he'd hit her?

No he would never do that, Jacob stopped stood at less then a his full height and sucked in a calming breath, one that he didn't really need as he was more shocked than anything. The last time anyone had hit him in the face it was Bella and he hadn't felt a thing. Crossing his arms over his chest he gave her a nod and waited for her to talk.

Talking was not Leah Clearwater's MO though and apparently the months that she had spent with Jake roaming the back woods of Canada had gotten to her. As she ranted and raved at him about everything from his love of Bella Swan to the love that she still had for Sam Uley, to the simple fact that he wasn't willing to steal that damn sheet off of the clothes line they had passed a week ago, it seemed that everything about Jake had pissed Leah off.

When he asked her why she had followed him, not left on her own, she stopped and looked at him long and hard before she took her own calming breath.

"I didn't leave because you need me Jake, just as much as I need you. I hate what our heritage has done to us, what it did to me and Sam and Emily. What it did to Seth and my father. Look at you; you used to be this happy go lucky kid, now you're me, the bitter bitchy harpy that no one but the other bitter bitchy harpy wants to be around. It doesn't bug you at all that we've been gone almost two months and no one has found us?"

It hit Jake then, they had been gone two months, putting it together, Jake realized that Bella's wedding was close or already over. Either way, he couldn't help it when his feet took him in the opposite direction that he was headed just an hour ago.

When Leah phased he cut himself back off from her, not wanting her to know the real reason that they were headed back, she'd figure it out soon enough.

She could feel the edges of her heart being licked by the flames the closer she got to La Push.

She knew why they were coming back; it wouldn't take a genius to figure it out and no matter how much Jake tried to close himself off from her, he couldn't. Once he had let her in, he couldn't get her completely back out. She couldn't hear his streaming thoughts, but she could feel his emotions: the determination, the worry and the fear. As those emotions coursed through him, Leah silently cursed to herself, if only she'd kept her fucking mouth shut.

She could smell La Push, they were getting closer. She could smell the dirt, musk and salt water from the ocean. She could feel the skin under her fur start to tingle, she was no longer running side-by-side with Jacob but her front shoulder was at his flank, her pace slowing subconsciously. Her nervousness about being home was coming off her in waves, but Jake pushed on, he had to get to Bella.

When they got to the outskirts of Forks Leah wasn't surprised in the least when every tree was plastered with a black and white poster. Jake's face took up more than half with the words "Have You Seen This Boy?" neatly typed out underneath followed but the Forks Police Department phone number. But it hurt and she couldn't stop the searing pain from coming when not one tree had her face on it. Did they not care? No one?

Leah stopped dead in her tracks when all of the pack minus Seth met them at the treaty line. Fear coursed through her veins and before she knew it she stood before all of them naked and shaking.

"Where is he? Where's Seth?"

Her voice was trembling so much so that it almost gave her fear away, but she quickly masked it by snarling when Paul's wolf stepped forward and phased back in front of her, their noses almost meeting over the treaty line. If looks could kill they both would have been six feet under.

His jaw dropped open to speak, then his body completely disappeared from hers and Jake's naked, dirty back took its place.

"Where is he, Paul?" She could feel something move across her skin as Jake spoke, and apparently Paul could feel it too because for the slightest beat she could see his eyes go wide before he took a step back, shooting a glance toward Sam. The black wolf nodded his head.

"He's at you're leech lover's wedding, with Sue and Billy."

Jake roared as he pushed past Paul, phasing in mid-air and then he was off, Leah hot on his heels. When she came to a halt in front of the Black house she could hear him cursing and things being thrown. His room was being destroyed. As she walked into the house and made her way back to his room, she realized what it was that he was doing.

When Leah got back to Jake's room she simply put a hand on his shoulder and turned him toward her, "My dad's old clothes should fit you well enough, Jake." Turning on her heel, Leah walked out the door. Anything for Bella Swan.

Leah was going through her father's closet when Jake stepped into the room, "Lee, you really don't have to"

"Yeah I do Jake, one last stand, right? If this doesn't work though you can't take off with out me, I don't think I'd be able to fight an Alpha order again."

Leah watched him as she spoke, he looked so young then, Leah noted in the back of her mind. So young and willing to get his heart stomped on again by the girl he loved, so young and dumb, because she knew that Bella Swan wasn't going to stop the wedding to her leech.

Ripping a white shirt off the hanger, Leah made her way over to Jake and held it out. When he took it he looked up at her, the determination swirled in his eyes and Leah's heart broke for him, and then she got angry. There really was something wrong with Jacob Black. Why the hell he would be so bound and determined to get a girl that obviously didn't want him, wanted to be cold and dead over him? She would never know. Why hadn't Sam ever look so determined?

She let her shoulder brush into his as she made her way around him.

Jacob could hear the music as he walked through the forest, he knew he was too late. The smell of leech was everywhere. The closer he got the stronger the smell got before it was right in front of him. Edward.

Jake had to hold back the growl that was about to erupt from his chest but is lips still rose above his teeth in a snarl. The movement behind him stopped. He knew they were back there, Sam and Paul at least, they weren't too close, yet close enough.

Leah's feet were dangling off the cliff when Embry came up beside her and plopped down. His elbow brushing her arm made her snarl and then regret it when Embry huffed out in annoyance. She could feel his worry, "what's he doing Leah?"

"He's going back for act seven-hundred and fifty-two, apparently."

"Where'd you guys go?"

"Canada."

"Is this the only reason why he came back?"

"You know it is, Call."

She felt Embry shift so that his knee was brushing up against her outer thigh. He was looking right at her, "why'd you let him?"

Her head whipped around, her eyes turning into slits, "let him? Why did I let him come back? I'm not his fucking mother Embry, it's not like I could have kept him out in the middle of bummed fucked nowhere forever." Leah snapped as she chucked a large rock over the cliff, "it's my fault he came back anyway I made the fucking mistake of telling him that we had been gone two months. The second those words slipped his eyes glassed over and then he was running straight back here; back to her." The last part came out as a snarl and Leah tensed knowing Embry had caught it.

The slight twitch of his lip gave her all the indication that she needed, he had heard it.

"So you and Jake have something goin- Ooof fuck Leah that hurts!" he said while rubbing his jaw.

"There is nothing going on with Jacob and me."

Embry stood and stepped back a few paces looking guilty and nervous, "but you want there to be?"

Leah snarled at him as she jumped to her feet, what if she did want there to be, what if the months that she had spent in the woods with Jake had her feeling things? It's not like it mattered. That dumb look on his face the second his tiny brain connected the dots that Bella's wedding was on the horizon had smashed all every single thought in her mind. She wasn't going there again, she was still too busy digging herself out of the hole Sam created. She wasn't going to get mixed up in wanting another man that obviously didn't want her.

Jacob waited just beyond the tree line watching as Edward walked at a human's pace back toward his bride. Bella already didn't look like Bella though, the long overly puffy gown that she wore the diamonds shinning in her ears. Scanning his eyes across the crowd, he could see that all of the dead guests were on high alert; they knew something was amiss. He didn't care, he was here to see her.

Edward whispered to Bella that he had a surprise for her, Jake couldn't help but snort.

The smile grew bigger the closer she got to him and on their own, the corners of his mouth lifted. Each step she took closer to him his heart thudded that much harder until Edward stopped in the middle of a small clearing, kissed Bella's cheek and walked away.

His fists clenched as he walked out of the cover of the forest and Bella gasped before running at Jake, launching herself into his open and waiting arms. Jake pulled her up to him; he knew that she had lost weight. He buried his nose in her hair and tried to pull in her scent, but came back disappointed; all he could smell was Edward and old musty perfume. This wasn't his Bells.

He couldn't take his hands off her waist when he finally set her down; the tears were already starting for her, threatening him. He asked her to dance; they were both swaying clumsily talking about things he could give a care less about when words of her honeymoon plans struck Jacob.

His hands were wrapped around her forearms and he was yelling at her before he knew it. She was a stupid stupid girl and that thing was going to kill her. He knew it, hell she knew it but apparently that is what she wanted wasn't it? To be dead, just like her freak husband.

Then Edward was there and so was Seth, jerking him back as he shook with all the rage that his body would allow without phasing. He wanted to kill him, right then and there in that little slip of a clearing not far from the party. He didn't care. A large head shoved him right in the stomach and suddenly he was moved away, away from Bella, away from Edward and finally away from pain.

Seth was still holding him when they got far enough away from the party that music was just barely a whisper and the stink of leech barely lingered. He was still shaking though, he couldn't calm down, "you're wearing my dad's shirt."

That caught his attention, the trembles stopped the moment he thought of that. He was wearing Harry's shirt. A shirt that Leah Clearwater had given him, something that belonged to her dead father. There was no way Jake was going to ruin this shirt; he couldn't do that to Leah. A shudder when through at even the thought of hurting her.

Jake shrugged it off while looking at Seth and the black wolf, his mind was a whirl of emotion and then everything clicked.

"I need to find Leah."

She was walking along the beach. The sun was setting, her hair was blowing in the wind whipping around smacking her in the face but she was enjoying it. Mostly because being in La Push was so much better than being in the middle of nowhere in Canada.

She was caught off guard when a large hand caught hers and then their fingers were threaded together. Jake was already matching her stride, he paused when she faltered and then started back up again when she did. She fought a smile as something inside her tingled.

They walked like that down the beach in silence, it was weird how even being silent with Jake made sense, problems just seemed to go away and solve themselves. She knew it was a temporary fix, but right now she just didn't want to talk about it.

Jake had other ideas, "so you're dad's shirt huh?"

He saw her lips twitch and he smiled, "how do you know things, Lee?"

Another twitch of her lips, "woman's intuition."

"They were married before I got there."

Leah only shook her head in response.

"She didn't even look like her, and she smelt like him and some old ladies perfume."

"Did you see my mom or Seth?"

Jacob snorted as he squeezed her hand, "Seth was the one hauling me back into the woods so I wouldn't kill Cullen, he's gotten strong, Lee."

"He is a Clearwater. So you wanted to kill Cullen, huh? Shocker there."

"She told me that they were going to have a real honeymoon."

"She's a bitch Jake."

"Lee," Jake said almost chastising her.

She stopped and tried to rip her hand out of his, "oh wait that's right I'm the bitch, sorry Jake for talking bad about your leech lover."

"I don't want to fight with you."

"The why the hell are you here telling me all about Bella Swan? You have to freaking realize that I could give a shit less about all of this right? I mean like I care that she's going to have a popsicle dick in her on her honeymoon, shit maybe that will kill her and he won't have to bite her so we won't have to go to war again over that little cunt!"

"Why'd you give me your dad's shirt?" Jacob asked taking her off guard.

"What?" she screeched almost so loud that it hurt her own ears.

"Why'd you give me your dad's shirt, Lee?"

"You just had to see your leech-lover and your poor ass obviously doesn't have any clothes. It is the reason we ran all the back here from Canada and God forbid you look bad for Bella Swan."

"Why'd you give me your dad's shirt Lee?" Jake could feel his temper start to rise, he knew the reason why she gave him that shirt and he wanted to hear it from her.

She opened her mouth to speak when Jake took a step toward her, his eyes hard, a look on his face that she had never seen before. "The truth." Something rolled down her spine, the prickling feel made her uncomfortable and her eyes widened.

"Did you just give me an order?"

Jacob knew that he had, the moment he crossed that La Push border two months ago he felt the Alpha power swell in him, "the truth Leah." He saw her shudder again, her eyes shot wide before turning into slits once more.

"Un-fucking-believable. Fine, you wanna know the truth? I gave you that shirt because I knew that she was going to break your heart all over again today Jacob, but there was no stopping you from going over there. All you cared about was saving Bella, but what about you huh? You're too stupid to save yourself someone had to do it."

Jake was really trying hard to fight the smile that was working its way to his lips. Leah was stomping around in the sand screaming at him at the top of her lungs, and then her finger shot out almost touching his nose.

"I knew you wouldn't be stupid enough to phase in my dad's shirt, you ass! I'd kill you, Seth would have fucking killed you, or well tried since your some big mighty fucking Alpha now."

There it was, Jake shook his head happy that she admitted it. Leah Clearwater never admitted anything, right or wrong.

"Don't you stand there smiling and shaking your head at me either Jake, I can't believe you, how long have you known that you're Alpha?"

"Since we left. You didn't feel it, Lee?"

Leah growled at him and slammed her hands down on her hips. Jake frowned because that was not a very Leah Clearwater move, that was a Bella move and Leah was no Bella. Stepping forward Jake wrapped his arms around Leah's wrists and removed them from her hips, causing her to smack at him.

"Get your fucking hands off me!"

"Calm down Lee, I've known that I've been Alpha of this little pack," Jake said gesturing between the two, smiling when Leah snapped at him, "since your voice cut into my head, I just felt it, a bit surprised that you don't feel anything though."

"That's all you care about that I don't feel anything?" She said still stomping around in front of him. Suddenly, Leah's eyes got big, her body froze in place, "oh shit oh wait, I can I can feel something Jake." Her hands started to tremble and he could hear the crack in her voice. She almost looked on the verge of panic so much so that Jake started to wonder, "Its you being a pain in my ass!"

Jacob barked out a laugh at that, only Leah Clearwater.

Her words began to fade into the background as he watched her stomp around in front of him flapping her arms, pointing her finger at him and eventually poking him in the chest. How could he not have seen this all along? She was beautiful and strong and most of all she was there for him.

There when he was broken after the newborn fight, helping heal his body and his heart. She stayed with him in Canada even though it took her away from her family and most of all she found a way to keep him grounded when she wasn't able to watch him hurt himself yet again over Bella Swan.

It seemed she always had his best interest at heart, and so Jake decided it was time to return the favor. Moving forward, he grabbed Leah mid-rant and pulled her body close to his. Her words died in her throat and then their lips began to burn.


End file.
